No. 1 Gonzaga Will Be Battle-Tested for NCAA Tournament After Win at St. Mary's

We have yet to see how Gonzaga handles getting punched in the mouth, something most coaches would say a team can benefit from because it allows for a chance to respond to adversity.

Maybe body blows is all the Bulldogs will sustain this season, though. And while enough of those can be as debilitating as a hard shot up high, to this point the Zags haven't looked dazed or fazed by what their opponents have brought to the fight.

As a result, Gonzaga looks prepared to take its perfect record all the way, regardless of what anyone thinks of the competition it has faced the past two months.

Saturday's 74-64 win at No. 20 Saint Mary's was No. 1 Gonzaga's fourth victory against a ranked opponent this season. The Gaels served as the two most recent foes on that list. The other two, Arizona and Iowa State, doubled as nonconference wins, and the Bulldogs have a victory over a now-ranked Florida squad. That's in addition to impressive triumphs over San Diego State, Washington and a Tennessee team that, by losing by only 10 to the Bulldogs in December, played them closer than most in 2016-17.

Gonzaga (26-0, 14-0 WCC) had only one other game decided by 10 or fewer points between then and Saturday—an 85-75 win Feb. 2 at BYU in which leading scorer Nigel Williams-Goss rolled his ankle early but still went on to score 33 points. He sat out the next contest, and the Bulldogs beat Santa Clara by 35.

Yahoo Sports' Brad Evans believes in them:

Sure, the West Coast Conference isn't anywhere close to the toughest league in Division I. But it's also not a lineup of total cupcakes playing in empty venues that are lacking in hostility. Far from it.

"Every game that Gonzaga plays in the WCC is a storm-the-court game," ESPN's Jay Bilas said during Saturday's broadcast. "It's always sold out, it's always the biggest deal in the place they're playing."

Saint Mary's packed as many people into tiny, high school gym-like McKeon Pavilion for what was its biggest game on the schedule. And Gonzaga only trailed for a few seconds early before making 10 straight shots to build a cushion it would never give up. Even after the Gaels used a 14-9 run to tie it at 23, the Bulldogs shrugged that off and used a 17-2 run to reassert control.

Ben Margot/Associated Press/Associated Press

The second half was more of the same, with Gonzaga's nine-point halftime lead trimmed to 49-44 with 13:34 left. Then Williams-Goss hit a jumper, backup center Zach Collins got a steal, Silas Melson hit a three-pointer and the lead stayed in double digits for all but two minutes and 19 seconds the rest of the way.

The Gaels (22-3, 12-2) aren't the kind of team anyone will want to face next month in the NCAA tournament, not with one of the slowest tempos in the country and an adjusted offense and defense that both rank in the top 50, according to stat guru Ken Pomeroy.

They'll cause heart palpitations for the coaching staff of whoever they draw in the first round, yet Gonzaga beat them by a combined 33 points and held them to two of their worst shooting performances of the season.

It's what Gonzaga does to teams.

Just because we haven't seen it do that against the likes of Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, Purdue, UCLA or Wisconsin doesn't mean it couldn't, and the way it has performed against opponents who have managed to fell those squads says as much.

Take the transitive property as you will, but the Bulldogs' win over Arizona in December means they beat a team that topped UCLA, which has beaten Oregon. By knocking off Iowa State in November, Gonzaga can lay claim to a victory over a squad that recently ended Kansas' long home win streak and by virtue has transitive superiority over Baylor. And it has multiple such triumphs over Kentucky thanks to beating Florida in Orlando and winning at Tennessee.

While topping Saint Mary's means Gonzaga has overcome its last notable challenge prior to the postseason—three of its remaining four games are at home, the lone road game being at 11-15 San Diego—it still has a major hurdle to overcome. That being perception, both from the general public and the NCAA tournament selection committee.

Earlier Saturday, the committee released its Top 16, the first time it's given out any information prior to Selection Sunday on March 12. While the Bulldogs were slotted as the No. 1 seed in the West Region, they were ranked as the worst of the four No. 1s:

There's not much argument with having Villanova as the top overall seed; after all it's the defending national champion and may be better this year than last. But Gonzaga has just as much claim to the second- or third-best No. 1 seed as Kansas and Baylor, and not just through fun with transitivity.

Gonzaga is a team without a weakness, or it's at least lacking one anyone has identified. Had it lost Saturday or some other time this season, we might have an idea of where a flaw may exist. But that hasn't happened. And after 26 wins by an average of 23.4 points, it may never.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.